Amritsar, January 8
The Dehriwal village has become a hub for mushrooms. Thanks to its native Subedar Sewa Singh. After getting training from the Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, he started the profession in 1976.

He subsequently imparted training of the technique to peasants from the adjoining villages.

With the help of his wife and two sons, he developed a low cost technology by raising a thatched house structure for growing mushrooms. The indigenous technique not only decreased the cost of production. Besides it also enhances the growing period as the temperature inside theses houses remain low.

The new technique has not only helped unemployed rural youth in adopting mushroom cultivation for self employment but also to marginal farmers to adopt mushroom farming as an allied activity to hike up their income.

The former army man, encouraged from his previous efforts, also established a spawn production laboratory in his house in 1988. The family effort is rewarded in the shape of production of 2000 kg mushroom spawn annually. His laboratory also serves for peasants of the surrounding rural area.

The Punjab government has acknowledged his yeoman service in the field of agriculture by honouring him on Independence Day in 1998.

A progressive farmer, he took training in bee-keeping, fishery, poultry and animal husbandry. With a view to disseminate his outstanding work, his activities were telecast on DD-I (Punjabi channel). The National Youth Department, Solan also honoured him for his services.

Amritsar, January 8
Kite flying marks small local events and traditional festivals being held for hundreds of years in the country. With the passage of time, it has brought in latest techniques, even from overseas, but these innovations, apparently, seem to backfire and affected the local kite and string manufacturers.

For example, the latest cheap China-made strings for kites affected the business of the local kite manufacturers and string makers.

The Chinese string, made of synthetic material, has the properties of being stretched extensively and can hardly be snapped with Indian-made string, no matters how strongly it has been coated with “glass-masala”.

This has resulted in lowering of interest of the local people towards the exciting competition of flying kites even on occasions like Lohri 
or Sankrant.

Jagmohan Khanojia, famous kite maker of the city, admitted that the traditional values and excitement associated with kite flying had deteriorated in the past few years due to invasion of Chinese string in the country.

“Where does the excitement left when there are minimal chances of scaling down the rival’s kite? People have lost interest in kite flying. Those who have, they too have little involvement in it. The just buy kite for their kids only. The business has almost come to half and it has become quite difficult to make both ends meet in these trying times. Above all, heavy taxes on kite paper and straw has escalated the cost of the product by over 25 per cent,” said Khanojia.

Now there are a few string manufacturers left. Otherwise, all the older and famous ones have stopped making strings for kites. Bau, who has been into string making for the past 25 years, rued that due to Chinese string, the sale of Indian string had reduced to 90 per cent. “Earlier, there were over 20 people who used to work with me. Today, I have just three of them. This trade has nosedived,” he said.

“Even the famous Vardhman Industries had once initiated to manufacture a counter for Chinese string but it could not be materialised,” Khanojia said.

To attract custimers, Khanojia has started making kites with a difference. “I tried to gain some attention by making kites having pictures of cricketers, film stars or some theme related to current events or making kite miniatures in bulbs or bottle for decoration purposes, but failed to do so. I appeal to the Punjab Government to help in save this traditional business, otherwise, a day will come when they would have to import kites too,” he said.

“The next step seem to be that cheap Chinese kites, too, would start coming in. This would force us to shut our shops,” Ram Saran, another string maker chipped in.

Amritsar, January 8
For almost over a decade, three main roads in Ward 19 --- Joria Kothia Wali road, Bharat Naar and New Pawan Nagar --- connecting various localities are waiting for repair, but thanks to the political favoritism this ward lacks basic amenities like sewerage and roads.At least this is what the local residents and councillor of the area alleged who were utterly disappointed over the attitude of consecutive governments.

“I am living in this area for at least a decade, but I never saw any work being done in the name of development while the conditions of roads and sewerage has gone worse during the period,” said Sandeep Kumar, a resident of Sandhu Colony.

What to say, the historic area of Tung Pai is waiting for development for last many years even the gurdwara constructed in memory of Guru Teg Bahadur is also a picture of neglect. “The filthy water enters the premises of gurdwara but nothing has been done to rectify the problem,” said Gurinder Singh, a resident of the area.

The condition of sewerage is also pathetic. Preet Nagar, Rajesh Nagar and Tung Pai are the worst effected as there is no sewerage in these areas. The residents have constructed water disposal tanks outside their residences that have contaminated the ground water.

“The water tanks are filled to their capacities while the inhabitants are forced to live in miserable conditions,” said another dweller Dalbir Singh. During rains it was like living in hell. Their repeated requests fell in deaf ears as the authorities turned a blind eye, he added.

Whatever development work is there, it is in patches with several streets being cemented while several brick-laned and remaining lie in a deplorable condition.

Another problem, which exists in the area, is garbage. The vacant residential plots have virtually turned into garbage dumps as the Municipal Corporation failed to lift the garbage on time.

Davinder Singh, a resident of New Pawan Nagar, said the corporation cared a little to lift the garbage on time while the residents were also themselves to be blamed who throw garbage and polythenes bags on these plots. 

Amritsar, January 8
With the temperature dropping down to -0.2° C today, the destitute in the city are finding it difficult to keep themselves warm.The Tribune team took a round of the city and found number of such homeless people taking shelter under the tarpaulin or blankets donated by various philanthropists of the city to them.

A large number of poor people were found near many religious shrines, on pavements outside the historic Rambagh garden, sides of railway overbridges, railway station, etc.

While talking to them it was found that many of them were mentally disturbed and were not in position to describe their pitiable conditions. Majority of them live by alms.

The footpaths and verandah of shops after their closure become their community kitchen. Dal and rice is the only delicacies on their menu and the cheapest drink is tea to give them relief from the severe cold conditions. Some admitted that being holy city, they hardly find any difficulty in getting their meals because there are many socialites who constantly organise langars for them.

The other places which become their shelters are under-construction buildings or underground parkings. They also lit bonfires to keep themselves warm.

Amritsar, January 8
The Amritsar administration is all set to install as many as 1,495 booths to administer polio drops to children up to 5 years. These booths would be set up in all parts of the city from January 10.

The fully equipped teams of health wing have been formulated in order to cater to an estimated 3,71,884 children.

Elaborating further, Dr Lehembar Singh, Civil Surgeon, Amritsar, said a total of 3,89,433 houses have been identified during a recent survey. There are 2,990 teams, which have been constituted to administer polio drops to the infants. Out of the total, 55 are transit teams and 106 are mobile teams. Besides this, there would be around 300 supervisors and 5,980 vaccinators in this anti-polio campaign.

Meanwhile, to spread awareness about this campaign, rickshaw rally was conducted today in various parts of the city.

Amritsar, January 8
A two-week AICTE-sponsored national-level staff development programme on “Herbal drug analysis” was inaugurated at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Pharmacy, Patti.

Chairman of the college Ram Iqbal Sharma said the seminar would update the knowledge of pharmacy teachers. Principals of BIS Pharmacy College Moga, LLR Pharmacy College, Moga, Sai Pharmacy College, Amritsar, and VMS College, Batala, and many delegates from different states were present.

Amritsar, January 8
Encroachment, poor maintenance and ad-hoc administrative approach have gobbled up British-era service lanes and dividers with greenbelt on Mall and Court roads.

Amazingly, the PSEB’s electric poles and streetlights, which were installed on greenbelt dividing service lane from the main road, are still standing on the same place.

These poles now seem to be standing in the midst of road which could prove fatal on foggy days. It defeated the very purpose of widening the road for smooth flow of traffic. Another major loss is of greenbelt on broad dividers.

At the Mall Road, service lane on it has entirely been demolished along with greenbelt in order to widen the road.

Social activist Naresh Johar said why the authority wiped out the old system of roads, which helped all kind of commuters, including two-wheelers, four wheelers, heavy automobiles, rickshaw pullers and pedestrians. If it was aimed at widening the road, it would remain a four-lane road like earlier.

He said if the authorities were really sincere of widening the road, they would have shifted electric, streetlights poles.

On the other hand, the Municipal Corporation has transformed the residential Mall Road into a commercial one. Following this a number of commercial multi-storey buildings have sprung up on either side of the road. These buildings ate away footpath in front of them to beautify their facades.

However, the footpath appears in front of residential buildings and disappears before the commercial buildings. Absence of footpath has hiked the problems of pedestrians who have to walk on the road and remain vulnerable to any wayward vehicle.

Luckily, the remnants of pristine service lane and divider with greenbelt distinguishing between main road and service lane are still visible on Court Road from Kitchlew Chowk to Circuit House intersection.

On the side of the residence of Mayor Shwet Malik, the service lane is in usable condition. While on the other side where government offices are located the service lane and divider are either encroached upon or in unserviceable condition.

When contacted, MC Commissioner D.P.S. Kharbanda said we had admitted a report to Centre to beautify and broaden the existing roads under the JNNURM. Talking about the remaining service lanes on the Court Road, he said the encroachments would be demolished on the lanes. On poles, he said steps were being taken to shift them to the roadsides.

Amritsar, January 8
Shriya Savlani (15), a student of DAV Public School, has won the silver medal in the 55th National School Games Roller Skating Championships organised by the School Games Federation of India, in the under-17 (girls) category at Delhi.

Shriya won the second consecutive silver medal in the road race at the national level.

Earlier, she won a silver medal at the 54th National School Games Roller Skating Championships held at Chandigarh. A student of Class X, she also won a silver medal in the CBSE skating nationals in November at Chandigarh.

In the same month, she won gold and silver medals in the 21st Open Punjab Roller Skating Championships at Fatehgarh Sahib and also won a gold in the road race and silver in rink race-2 at the School Games Punjab State Tournament held at Patiala.

It all started when Shriya took to skating when she was in class VI at the age of 11. She won her first medal in the Amritsar district championship and later her major win came at the state-level in 2006 where she won a gold medal in road race and bronze in rink race-1 in the Open Punjab State Roller Skating Tournament.

Amritsar, January 8
“Any decline in agricultural production shall not only put the food security of the country in peril but also affect the already fragile economy of the state,” opined Dr. Bijay Singh, National Professor of ICAR at PAU, Ludhiana, on the concluding day of the three-week refresher course in environmental studies.

This course was organised by the Academic Staff College, in collaboration with the Department of Botanical and Environmental Science at the Guru Nanak Dev University here.

Dr. Bijay Singh, who was the chief guest on the occasion, in his valedictory address, brought out the adverse effects of climate change on agricultural production and productivity of the country.

He also called upon the participating teachers to initiate individual action towards environmental conservation. He said good policies and protocols of protection are the need of the hour. But the ultimate responsibility of environmental protection lies on the enlightened citizens of the country.

More than 20 resource persons deliberated on varied burning issues such as population explosion, loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution and its management, vis-a-vis human health. The thrust area of this interdisciplinary course was the Holistic Approach to Environment.

Other topics of discussion included indoor pollution, disaster management, wild life conservation, environmental economics, green chemistry and the loss of the ozone layer in the stratosphere and wet lands of the country. About 40 teachers from various disciplines participated in the course, which included Dr. Renu Bhardwaj and Dr. Saroj Arora.

Earlier, Dr. H.S. Bhatia, Director, Academic Staff College welcomed the chief guest and others. Dr. Amarjit Singh Soodan, Senior Professor of the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences was the coordinator of this course.